As part of a visit to Shabran, President Ilham Aliyev has attended a ceremony to commission the Valvalachay-Takhtakorpu canal and to start the filling of Takhtakorpu water reservoir with water.

The Chairman of the "Land Reclamation and Water Economy" Open Joint Stock Company, which is the project owner, Ahmad Ahmadzadeh, and the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Euro-Asian Construction Corporation "Evraskon", which carried out the project, Efendi Ismiyev, informed the President of Azerbaijan about the construction of the Takhtakorpu reservoir and the Valvalachay-Takhtakorpu and Takhtakorpu-Jeyranbatan canals.

It was noted that by means of the Valvalachay-Takhtakorpu canal, which is over 34 kilometers in length, water will be taken from the 50-km mark of the Samur-Absheron canal and flow into the Takhtakorpu water reservoir by gravity. To this end, a 27-km open-cut concrete canal, the main facility, three 2,547-meter steel culverts and two 577-meter reinforced concrete culverts, a 3,572-meter tunnel, 14 bridges, 28 floodwater drains and one water discharge outlet have been built.

The construction of the first 10.7-km section of the canal was financed by the Islamic Development Bank and was completed in 2011. The opening ceremony was attended by President Ilham Aliyev. The construction of the second 23.54-km section of the canal was funded by the State Oil Fund. Its water discharge outlet has also been completed now. This will enable collection of the water from the Samur River in the Takhtakorpu reservoir.

It was indicated that the construction of the Valvalachay-Takhtakorpu canal will improve the
supply of irrigation water to 9,250 hectares of land in Shabran District and 918 hectares in Guba District. It will also increase the irrigated area by the inclusion of additional 8,866 hectares of new lands in Shabran District in the turnover. The foundation of the Takhtakorpu water reservoir was laid in a ceremony attended by President Ilham Aliyev in autumn 2007. Its lake covers an area of 8.7 square kilometers, the total capacity is 268.4 million cubic meters and storage capacity is 238.4 million cubic meters. There are plans to build breechless and water intake facilities, a power tunnel, a power station and three turbines with a combined capacity of 25 megawatts on the dam.

It was indicated that 23.26 out of 23.48 million cubic meters of earthwork required to be carried out on the body of the dam has been completed to this day, with finishing work under way on the surface and the hydroelectric power station. The construction of the water reservoir together with the power plant will be completed in September 2013.

The President was also informed about the progress of construction of the Takhtakorpu-Jeyranbatan canal. It was mentioned that the objective behind the construction of this facility is to get rid of the pump stations on the Samur-Absheron canal and increase the volume of water fed into the Jeyranbatan water reservoir by gravity to 40 cubic meters per second. A total of nine culverts, two aqueducts, one tunnel, 50 bridges, 231 floodwater drains and one water discharge outlet will be constructed on the canal. The construction of this hydro-technical facility is also scheduled for completion in September 2013.

It was emphasized that the implementation of the project on the reconstruction of the Samur-Absheron irrigation system will improve water supply of Baku, Sumgayit and the Absheron Peninsula as they will receive 18 cubic meters of water per second, and contribute to the environmental balance in the north of the country. In addition, this sophisticated project will improve water supply of 150,000 hectares of land in the northern region of the country and include approximately 30,000 hectares of irrigated land into the circulation.

President Ilham Aliyev launched the facility. The feeding of water into the Takhtakorpu water reservoir via the Valvalachay-Takhtakorpu canal began.

The head of state watched online footage of water flowing into the Takhtakorpu water reservoir via the Valvalachay-Takhtakorpu canal and the progress of finishing work on the dam of the Takhtakorpu reservoir.

President Ilham Aliyev gave instructions and recommendations for the successful completion of this megaproject.